CursorFX is a utility which allows you to have much more flexibility in the cursors
you use to interact with Windows. CursorFX users can create and use cursors that
look and feel far superior to anything you've ever seen before! Best of all, it's
really easy to create your own super-charged cursors!

DesktopX is a program that lets users build their own desktops. It does this by
giving users access to desktop objects. These objects can come in all sizes and
shapes. They can have scripts attached to them, they can be combined together to
form mini applications or turned into an entire desktop.

Publisher:

Stardock Corporation

Developer:

Stardock Corporation

Stardock DeskScapes is a program that allows users to have animated wallpaper on
their Windows 8, Windows 7, XP or Vista desktop. It supports playing video as animated wallpaper,
dynamically generated content as animated wallpaper, and more.

IconPackager is a program that allows users to change nearly all of their Windows
icons at once by applying "packages" of icons. A package of icons contains
icons to replace most of the common icons on your Windows PC.

Icons

Icons for applications and folders.

LogonStudio is a free program that allows users to change their Windows 7, Vista
and XP logon screens. It comes with several logon screens to choose from, along
with thousands that are available online.

ObjectDock™ is a program that enables users to organize their shortcuts, programs
and running tasks into an attractive and fun animated Dock. By allowing users to
have more control over how they organize their desktop, users can take control of
their desktop icons and shortcuts to have them be available when where and how they
need them.

ObjectDock™ is a program that enables users to organize their shortcuts, programs
and running tasks into an attractive and fun animated Dock. By allowing users to
have more control over how they organize their desktop, users can take control of
their desktop icons and shortcuts to have them be available when where and how they
need them.

Show off your favorite desktop configuration by uploading a screenshot of your desktop!

SoundPackager brings customization of your auditory experience to Object Desktop!
Users can now choose from "sound packages" to enhance their Windows desktop
experience. Over 30 different system sounds are supported; unique new Stardock Design
sound packages are included with the package.

Microsoft Windows® 8 is shipped without the "Start" menu. Stardock heard the cries from Windows 8
users. We put the "Start" menu back in Windows 8. We accurately recreated the most used desktop
feature billions of users depend on every day and packed it with additional functionality.

Microsoft Windows® 8 is shipped without the "Start" menu. Stardock heard the cries from Windows 8
users. We put the "Start" menu back in Windows 8. We accurately recreated the most used desktop
feature billions of users depend on every day and packed it with additional functionality.

Theme Manager is a program that changes the look and feel of the entire Windows
environment. It works by talking to existing desktop enhancement programs and then
applying a MyColors or Suite file. In short, Theme Manager is a front-end to other
desktop enhancement programs to simplify the user experience.

WindowBlinds changes the look and feel of your Windows desktop by applying visual
styles to your entire Windows environment. When a visual style is applied, they
change nearly every elements of the Windows GUI such as title bars, push buttons,
the Start bar, menu and more.

View Gallery List

View a list of all of the different galleries available in WinCustomize, which you
can then browse individually.

Explore All

Explore all available galleries on WinCustomize.

Customize This Menu

This option is only available for subscribers of WinCustomize. If you are a subscriber
it will allow you to select which categories you would like to see in this menu
from a list of all galleries available on the site. This information will be stored
on your account for all your future visits.

Windows 8 has the new Start screen (aka Metro) which some users love, and others hate. After having use it for a while, I have come to like it and use it often especially since there have been some great apps released recently. One thing about the Start screen though is you really can’t customize it much aside from colors and a few included background images.

That’s where Decor8 comes in and gives you ability to further personalize your Windows 8 experience. Decor8 allows you to change the Windows 8 Start screen to one of many included images, or use your own images. You can also create a slideshow of pictures or have background images changed at timed intervals for an even cooler experience. Decor8 also does much more by letting you choose and create your own color themes, along with apply effects to your images and even control how many rows of tiles to show on your start screen.

Using Decor8 is pretty simple. In the Backgrounds setting is where you can choose and set your start screen background image. As I mentioned before, there’s many included but you can certainly use any image on your PC. You can load an individual image file, or select image folders that Decor8 can display. All you have to do is select the image you want and you can click through to the start screen to see if you want to keep it or choose another. You can also choose several (or all) images and set them to change at timed intervals.

Decor8 also gives you the ability to apply effects to your background images. You can and adjust the fade on your images, add some blur, or adjust the color and contrast. This allows you to really personalize the start screen experience!

In the Colors settings, you can either choose to use a standard color theme, or get really creative and choose your own custom color scheme. Here you can change the colors of various areas including the background color, accent color, standard tile color, and the text color.

Additional features of Decor8 allow you to define the default row count for Tiles, and the ability to change your Lock screen images also. If you are tired of the default personalization options in Windows 8, then come give Decor8 a try and make your Windows 8 start screen your very own.

Decor8 is available as a free 30-day trial and can be purchased for only $4.99.

Yes, I am enjoying Decor8 a lot, and like you, I am using the Metro/Modern UI more and more as time goes on, but not just for the new app releases, etc. I find it a handy place to store all my shortcuts and frequenly used programs. Furthermore, it is convenient and quite efficient when seeking an app for a particular job. While I have Start8 installed, I find that I am conveniently and quickly switching from the desktop to the Metro UI to access things more often than not nowadays. I occasionally use the conventional start menu, but nowhere near as frequently, and I believe Decor8 has, in part, influenced that change.

Having said that, however, there are a couple of other things I'd like to see included in Decor8.

Firstly, the ability to edit App Store tiles to make them more visually appealing, and to be able to create custom tiles with our own icons and backgound colours for installed programs.

Secondly, while tile goups can be named and you can group them into categories, I'd like to see some sort of a jump list to access items more quickly and conveniently in a large library of shortcuts.

Also, while Decor8 allows for more than the default 4 rows of tiles, my screen resolution does not allow me to add more, so perhaps the ability to resize tiles to enable a 5th and possibly 6th row could resolve this when a resolution adjustment is not possible.

Thanks for listening, Stardock, I am sure you will endeavour to make Decor8 all that it can be.

Quoting starkers, reply 1Firstly, the ability to edit App Store tiles to make them more visually appealing, and to be able to create custom tiles with our own icons and backgound colours for installed programs.This would be awesome.

Yes, there is an app that already allows users to make custom tiles, OblyTile, but it does not allow for current tiles to be edited. I have used OblyTile to see how it works, and while it is simple enough to use, it isn't Stardock's and lacks those features I am sure the devs at Stardock can provide.

In fact, I'll fire up OblyTile shortly and create a section of custom tiles so I can post a screenshot here for all to see. I mean, let's show off just how awesome the Metro UI can be made to appear. Admittedly, I didn't like the look or idea of it when I first saw Metro, but having installed Win 8 as my primary OS, and using Metro on a daily basis, it has grown on me considerably.

Yes, Metro is worth persisting with, and if Decor8 can be adapted to edit existing tiles, resize tiles and create custom tiles, it will be fantabulous.

Okay, Stardock is either going to think I'm a thorn in their side or a pain in their ass... but I have another Decor8 feature request...

Having set up the tiles in the above screenshot with icons and program paths, etc,, and realising just how long it took me, I feel there's a need to have a theme manager incorporated in Decor8 so we can save and reapply themes as required. I mean, it was made possible to create a theme file in ObjectDock to apply and reapply as needed, so I'm hoping the same can be done here in Decor8... cos yeah, setting up an entire start panel with custom tiles is a mammoth task, and a theme reapplication function would certainly save some time.

Yes, I am enjoying Decor8 a lot, and like you, I am using the Metro/Modern UI more and more as time goes on, but not just for the new app releases, etc. I find it a handy place to store all my shortcuts and frequenly used programs. Furthermore, it is convenient and quite efficient when seeking an app for a particular job. While I have Start8 installed, I find that I am conveniently and quickly switching from the desktop to the Metro UI to access things more often than not nowadays. I occasionally use the conventional start menu, but nowhere near as frequently, and I believe Decor8 has, in part, influenced that change. Having said that, however, there are a couple of other things I'd like to see included in Decor8. Firstly, the ability to edit App Store tiles to make them more visually appealing, and to be able to create custom tiles with our own icons and backgound colours for installed programs. Secondly, while tile goups can be named and you can group them into categories, I'd like to see some sort of a jump list to access items more quickly and conveniently in a large library of shortcuts. Also, while Decor8 allows for more than the default 4 rows of tiles, my screen resolution does not allow me to add more, so perhaps the ability to resize tiles to enable a 5th and possibly 6th row could resolve this when a resolution adjustment is not possible. Thanks for listening, Stardock, I am sure you will endeavour to make Decor8 all that it can be.

I'd say to manage a bunch of shortcuts, there isn't anything more handy that what I'm using since windows 98, a really wonderful piece of software at this time (and still today, despite some minor missing features (like customizing icons, adding more shortcuts panels (even if that part can be bypassed)) and outdated dialogs/windows frames), let's name it : PopMouse by pointix. It Just works fine in windows 7 x64 and I only have 3 applications that didn't like to be launched by it.

Being an abandon software, US copyright department has issued the rights for people to share and access no longer available software as downloading obsolete games and unavailable software is now completely legal because they are considered public material.

Hey Phoon! No IE is not my default browser... I use FF and Ice Dragon by Comodo.

As for making it work, well I dunno, didn't do anything special but everything works as it should.

As for kissing all that work goodbye, I'm hoping that Stardock implement a 'save theme' feature in Decor8, though not just for backup in case of a crash, etc. I'm thinking that I'd like to be able to change the Metro theme when I change my desktop theme, you know, to keep things in the same vein.

since Oblytile isn't made by Stardock I would be skeptical on that one. If SD were to make an app similar to Oblytile though...

As for the browser, I set my default to Chrome once and it borked the hell out of all my custom tiles I'd made. Even after changing it back to IE it remained hosed. I keep as far away from FF as possible ( but that is a topic for another time and place ).

Here is the thread I had made on this at one time. http://forums.wincustomize.com/436239 The thread started out with pointing out Oblytile then I had found Modern Tile Maker. Now I can't be certain I tried this with Obly or not. Hell, now I'm all confused and can't even remember if I wiped my own ass this morning or not... EEEK.

since Oblytile isn't made by Stardock I would be skeptical on that one. If SD were to make an app similar to Oblytile though...

Yeah, I know, but I'm hoping Stardock will develop further on Decor8 and implement this feature plus the ability to customise tile backgrounds and icons. That would pretty much make it the complete program and raise its profile outside of WC/Stardock. I've read it on a few forums now, that Win 8 users want more ability to personalise/customise Metro, and I think Stardock would be on to a great thing if they expand upon Decor8 to allow greater user control.